The present invention relates to an image processing device which performs editing operations on an image stored in a memory.
In general, image editing is performed such that subject image information is stored in a memory and then image editing operations such as extraction, deletion and movement are performed on the image information thus stored. In storing image information into a memory, addresses of the memory are allocated to X and Y coordinates of respective pixels constituting the image, and the image information is stored into the memory so as to be two-dimensionally developed thereon. In an editing operation, for instance, movement, destination addresses of the memory are calculated, and original image data are written to those addresses.
Memory address control devices of the above type for storing into a memory and editing two-dimensional image information using its X ond Y coordinates are disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Unexamined Publication Nos. Sho. 58-1262, Sho. 59-151258 and Hei. 1-251286. However these devices have the following disadvantages.
In the conventional technique disclosed in the publication Sho. 58-1262, multiplication is effected by shifting data toward the LSB or MSB. Therefore, the memory width in the Y direction is limited by a power of 2.
Although the memory width is not limited by a power of 2 in the conventional technique of the publication Sho. 59-151258, fixed-length data on an x-y plane is processed in this technique.
In the conventional technique of the publication Hei. 1-251286, since image information to be rotated should be sent in a manner depending on a rotation angle, it is not applicable to, for instance, a raster image as sent from an image reading device etc., in which case the order of sending image information to be rotated is fixed.
Further, there have been proposed some techniques of storing image information into a three-dimensional memory. However, in writing arbitrary image information into a three-dimensional memory, a relationship between a length in the depth direction of the three-dimensional memory and the quantity of image information is not considered. Therefore, memory addresses of first one-byte portions of arbitrary coordinates (X, Y) are calculated one by one based on proper reference coordinates in a proper scanning order.